Elian Gonzalez Criticizes U.S. Immigration Policy vs. Cuba and asks for the release of the Five

Havana, Nov 18 (Prensa Latina) Elian Gonzalez, who being a child suffered himself the U.S. immigration policy against Cuba, condemned the Cuban Adjustment Act, a law that encourages the Cubans to leave the island illegally.

I suffered the consequences of that law in late 1999. The basic rights included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the right to be together with my father, the right to keep my nationality, and stay in my cultural context, were violated, he said.

Gonzalez was the protagonist of an incident between the Caribbean country and the United States, after wrecking in a boat, in which his mother and other people sought to emigrate.

After being the only survivor, Elian was rescued and taken to the city of Miami, where anti-Cuban groups supported by some distant relatives held him against the will of his father.

Seven months later and after a media trial, the child was returned to Cuba.

Those were very sad moment for me, it marked me for life. I never had the chance to have a moment to think of my mother, who as a result of the Cuban Adjustment Act, died at sea, he said.

In his statements to local press, Elian also asked U.S. President Barack Obama the release of the Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly condemned in that nation.

Until now only Rene Gonzalez is free after completing his sentence in prison plus a period of supervised release, condition modified by a judge who accepted his stay in Cuba in exchange for renouncing his U.S. citizenship last May.